Of Elves and Men
by Niliathiel
Summary: A few thoughts I had...rather philosophical, but I hope some of you like it: what would a Man from our time and an Elf from Tolkien s world tell each other?


Author´s note: Hallo guys. This is something I wrote some weeks ago and I´ve finally found the time to translate it. Well, I was thinking about some stuff...what would an Elf from Tolkien´s world and a Man from our world tell each other if they ever met? They live in two totally different worlds after all. Well, this is a rather....philosophical thingy I suppose. Just stuff that was going through my mind combined with some ideas that I took from "The last Elf" (a short story you´ll also find among my stuff here). Hope you enjoy it. Drop me a line, okay? Nili  
  
OF ELVES AND MEN   
  
Elf: Their world has become hastier. They do no longer heed the whispering of the wind or the sweet sound of the water. The animals of forest and den and the slow change of the leaves in autumn are strange to most of them. They are no longer able to listen to the silence for they have forgotten to listen with their hearts. The look of a star sparkled sky does no longer fascinate them, they only have an eye for what they themselves make. They do no longer watch the stars, they send their rockets to them and do not even know how foolish they are to believe that they could ever get close to them by doing so. They do no longer hear the songs of the song birds or the whispring of the winds in the trees, which might tell him, who is able to listen, tales that are long gone by. They only hear the loud music which sounds from all sides and the noise that is caused by their creations. And no longer do they smell the fresh morning´s dew or the warm rain of a sommer´s day. They have forgotten about the scent of a flower, for the smell of their machines kills all scents. None of them remembers the feeling of glory one feels when the light touches the earth or when dreams reveal secrets. They have lost their ability to sing, they can´t sing with the fair voices of the first Men, who walked the earth when the world was young. Deaf, silent and blind they walk this world, but still they believe to be aware of their sences. They praise themselves as the crown of creation, the only being which is able to dominate all others to rule nature. Human, do you really believe your eyes can see? How can you believe this, for thine eyes have never seen the world beyond the grey veil that sorrounds the world. Man, you do not share the sight of the Elves. And do you really believe in your ability to hear the things that are worth to be heard? O, you fool who says so and who has never heard the sweet sound of the golden trumpets of Gondolin, nor the voice of Lúthien or the calls of the sea birds on the western shore. And thou even are not able to speak, for there is no love in your tongue for the things that are dear to the Elves. Your songs sound dull and without joy, four thou hast banned and forgotten about the old tongue of Valinor. I should feel anger with you, Man, for you kill the things that are worth living, you fear the things you don´t understand and you don´t heed what does not fit into your thinking. Wrath I should feel, four you destroy the world and don´t heed it. But this is not what I feel, Man. I feel compassion. Compassion with a being that forgot its sence for beautiful things.  
  
Man: Compassion? I do not need your compassion. Not the compassion of one of a folk that has long ago been forgotten and whose kingdoms – if the tales about them were ever more than tales, written down to entertain men – have long ago fallen, long before history began! History and stories may be the same to you, but I, a Man, are well able to distinguish these two. History, that´s us but your kin is not mentioned in it. You are only in the stories, but nowhere else. You call me deaf, shadow? For thou art not more than a shadow! Not I, not we are deaf, it´s you. We can hear more things than your people has ever heard. We can listen to things that happen at the other side of the world in the same moment that they are happening. We even listen to the heart beat of the universe, which is been made audible by our technique. And blind also? Whom do you call blind, ye ghost from legends? Even a child has seen more in its young life than you have seen in centuries. It´s enough to press a button to see places to which it would have to travel far. It can see different worlds, which are realistically shown, because this is made possible with our technique, phantasy and computers. And silent you call me? Our people talk in many tongues and our rulers guide the faith of this world with what they say! We are not silent, Elf, you are! Your songs to the stars and trees which you think I am not worthy to hear, have fallen silent. They are gone! Past! They don´t matter any longer! And the stars...they are dear to you, indeed, aren´t they? But how can you say, you´re close to them? It was us. We flew up to them to look at them. If you were able to instruct the space ships, Elf, but you can´t, for noone else but humans can doninate techniques like this. Go ahead then, call yourself the harker of the wind, the worshiper of the stars and the praiser of sunlight, for you are not able to instruct the rockets. If you could fly up there into space you would understand that your world and your way of thinking is just an illusion. Up there is material, there are planets made of stone and ice. You would seek in vain for the ship of the sun or the one of the moon, ridden by a servant of the Valar, passing the skies in silence and dignity. You would not find the abyss of the world on whose rim the Elves believe that one is able to hear the Enenmy of the world mourn! I do not need your compassion, for you need it yourself!  
  
Elf: Easily thou playest with compassion, Man! But yet I do not know, if compassion is something, you can feel. Somebody who calls himself the emperor of the stars and all beings of this world, someone who journeys to the skies...does he really need my compassion? Maybe not, but you should be able to feel it still, for it seems you think that other creatures are unworthy in comarison with you.  
  
Man: Not unworthy are they, but they are not intelligent enough to compete with Men. We are the only ones with a consciousness, the only ones with the ability to think. No being on earth is able to create what human minds can imagine. No animal, no creature apart from Men can compete with us.  
  
Elf: Of the things you can not reach for, thou speakest like a fool. Thou speakest of consciousness, but you do not know its meaning, although you call yourself the only being that owns it. Do you believe the creatures of the world do not own it as well? Do you think the birds of the forest would not consciously experience their world? Why should they sing, if they would not see the sun and the light like you do? Do you think, a horse does not have any consciousness? A horse, roaming the wide lands with the wind in its nostrils? The earth is a part of its life. How can a creature be more aware of everything than the horse? The bird? The leave feeling the wind?  
  
Man: Consciusness do those own that act according to it! Those that are able to show their strengts. Those that are able to dominate what might be useful.  
  
Elf: And once more your words make me sad, Man. There was a time when your kin lived in friendship with the things and creatures of this world....have you forgotten about it?  
  
Man: Legends, Elf. Legends about a world that never existed.  
  
Elf: Just because your eyes can´t see this world, you ban it and call it phantasy? Electriyity that you use, magnetism, the energy of the sun, all of these things are invisible but still they exist. You believe in them, because you feel what they do, so why do your shut your heart and soul to the things that are true?  
  
Man: Truth is a sword with two blades, shadow. I believe in the things I should be believing in, the things that push me forward and not those that make me fall back. Where is the use of mourning over old times, times that never existed and that now, as you say, are locked away and lost? Fallen down and veiled by the mists of legends? These things have never happened, they are fairy tales, legends and myths.  
  
Elf: So what are legends? Legend becomes myth, but myths and legends were history once, before they were forgotten.  
  
Man: Forgotten, my word, Elf. They are forgotten like you and your people. The things you are talking about, if they are real or not, don´t matter. They have passed away and are gone and the things that lie beyond the mists are no longer a part of this world and have no influence.  
  
Elf: But mists can be raised. They can move... have you never seen the dew in the morning and asked yourself where the mist might dwell at night when it can´t dwell with the flowers and leaves who are sleeping?  
  
Man: I do not think about such things. Why do you do so? Don´t answer, for I can answer to you. You think about those things because they are untouchable, they are gone and soon to perish, just like you they are nothing, just a shadow.  
  
Elf: So tell me, Man. Why do you then talk to a shadow? A shadow from a world you call unimportant and, as I suppose, even dangerous.  
  
Man: I think all this is just a dream. You would not exist in waking life, Elf. In the real world you are not even a shadow. You do no longer exist there. Your last refuge are the borders of dreams. Just a whisper has remained of you, a whisper which will soon be gone.  
  
Elf: Does this make you happy, Man? In many years when the ages will have passed nothing will remain of your people as well. You only live to see a little span of time, only for a short while you dwell upon this earth to manage your businesses, whereas the Elves have the time to let things develop through the ages.  
  
Man: Poems! Songs! Hymns to the heroes of old!  
  
Elf: Beauty! Things we created with our hands when our kindred was young.  
  
Man: Things we can create as well!  
  
Elf: No, human, you can make things that are noisy. Useful things, yes. But they do have no inner beauty for they lack something you cannot give to them. Something, only the Elves could give, because we owned and still own something that will forever remain a mystery to Men.  
  
Man: What is that supposed to be? Men can create beautiful things as well, their hands create with love as well and their minds can make up poetry.... What did the Elves ever own that we do not have and never will have? Something we will ever be willing to achieve?  
  
Elf: Something thou seekest for since you came into being, but which you will never claim. Something you try to achieve by doing great deeds that make your names famous around the world, so that after hundreds of years people will remember you without knowing who you were or what you felt. Something, your lore masters seek for, but they are desperate and do not find it, for it is not appointed to you and still the Elves do own it. Immortality! 


End file.
